User blog:Agent c/News from the Wastes - 9 Feb 2013
InXile Entertainment have released their first gameplay video on Vimeo. Sadly as its not on Youtube I can't embed it, but you can see it for yourself here. It includes Chris Keenan playing part of the Agricultural Centre. Brian says it all better than I can.... :We are very proud to provide the first gameplay video of Wasteland 2, which will allow our backers to see how far we've come and how everything is coming together. The usual way of doing things in this industry would see us create a demo specifically for displaying to the press or at game shows, but we're very glad to have been allowed the freedom to create a demo video from an actually playable area, which ensures there's no wasted code. This is a straight video capture of Development Director Chris Keenan playing the game. The only element that is not running in code is the sound effects, as it was faster to do in post, but as you will hear, there is nothing being done audio wise that isn't easily replicated in engine. In fact, we plan to have many more sound effects in the final game than what is heard here. :This represents not just the strong synergy of the inXile team but the effects of your continued input via the forums. The game has continued to improve thanks to this communication, and Wasteland 2 will be better for it. The benefits have ranged from changes to the combat mechanics to finalizing the name of our attribute system. :It also represents the success of working with Unity and the asset creation experiment we did to increase the variety and density of the world look. We were pleasantly surprised at the talent that submitted art content, and we look forward to continuing to work with them. :I’d also like to thank the military personnel who joined our Yammer group to help us develop the slang and communicate more real world experiences for us to draw on. We love to learn little things like how much they hate it when movies say “Over and out!”… There is no “out” after “over” dammit! :This first level you will see is one of the first areas you will encounter in the game. The agricultural center was also a part of Wasteland 1. It was an area that Chris Avellone had some affinity for and he did the design for the level. Also thanks goes out to Nathan Long, who provided this area’s clever writing. We had a chance to show Chris the level last week, and when we commented that it was coming together he said “not coming together … it has COME together.” :Our objective was to show off some of the HUD and how both the combat and skill systems work. There are many elements not represented here but to name a few: *Minimal particle effects *Minimal sound *Mini-map not working *Inventory, logbook and other character screens not shown *Not all skills (in and out of combat) being represented *No world map movement *It needs more messaging in the UI *And not a comprehensive list of all the combat variables :Sorry if we're over communicating, but it's just a reminder: we're just past the halfway mark, so don't expect to see everything that you can expect from the final game just quite yet. :You will get to listen to the latest track from Mark Morgan (at the bottom of this update) that sets the haunting and often desolate tone of the Wasteland. And you will hear our first pass at the radio broadcasting which plays a vital role in communication, reactivity and mood setting. There will be a host of cults who are broadcasting their propaganda while other calls will be the locals who seek the help of our rangers. We have many interesting ideas on how to use the radio in novel ways. :Our vision for this game remains intact and you will see a number of examples that illustrate this. The customization can be seen in the examples of bringing in your own portraits and by the ability to set the user interface in a style that works for you. :You wanted a party and turn based RPG with tactical combat, and we are delivering that. The demo helps to show off action points, use of cover, enemy view cones, distance/height/enemy size/enemy speed affecting the chance to hit, ammo configurations, attributes changing the characters strengths and role, simultaneous party firing and more. And we are not done adding elements to make sure you are fully engaged in an interesting combat system. There is still plenty of time for you to comment on the combat system and to help us hone it in. Our goal is to build a very deep combat system, with the potential to dive in and fine-tune your damage-output and tactics, while not absolutely requiring that level of micro-management from all players. :If you played Wasteland 1, you will enjoy the many callbacks to the original, but at the same time there is no need of that knowledge. While certainly not a comedy you will get a healthy dose of the humor that gave Wasteland its charm. :Once again we thank you all for backing our vision… Category:Blog posts